Abstract

Over the past decade, policymakers have promoted marriage as a pathway to improve child outcomes in single-parent households. However, previous research on single mothers who later married in the United States has failed to examine how the structural advantages and disadvantages of race influence post-birth marriages and the advantage they may confer. I investigate how white advantage—the human- and social-capital benefits that come from being a white individual—acts as a resource distributed differently across three couple configurations. I predict that having access to white advantage via a white parent will improve child academic achievement. Using the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 1998 (ECLS-K 1998) and the US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study 2011 (ECLS-K 2011), I compare children from white monoracial marriages, white-Hispanic interracial marriages, and Hispanic monoracial marriages. My results suggest that white advantage in the home increases access to critical resources that improve child academic achievement. Additionally, I find further evidence of Hispanic disadvantage as children from Hispanic monoracial marriages score lower on math and reading tests than children from white monoracial marriages, even after accounting for resource and demographic factors.

Degree

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Sociology

Rights

https://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/